Book offers new possibilities for blender

Its title sounds a bit imposing, but “The Blender Bible,” a new paperback by Andrew Chase and Nicole Young (Firefly, $19.95), is so named because of the many ways it expands the range of the kitchen appliance often relegated to Margaritaville.

Hundreds of ways, in fact, beyond cocktails and smoothies, although dozens of those recipes are also included. There are soups, salad dressings, sauces for main dishes, desserts and a surprisingly hefty chapter on baby food recipes. Overall, the recipes are simple to follow, cover a lot of ethnic territory and follow the blender’s basic appeal: Throw stuff in, whirr and pour it out. Someone who’s not so comfortable in the kitchen would find these recipes doable. Pre-chapter recipe indexes are a helpful feature.

Keepers of old blenders might have to experiment a little. In the book’s recipe directions, gone are the choices of chop, grind, puree and liquefy. Most call for low to high speeds, in line with the dial options of some recent models. Pulse is still a key feature, though.